Just Moved to Spain? Speak English and WhatsApp Your Landlord in Spanish

You can speak English and send Spanish. In a WhatsApp chat, switch to the YOURIO voice keyboard, turn on translation with Spanish as the target, and say "The boiler stopped working, could someone come and take a look?" The Spanish is typed straight into the message box. Recognition and translation run on your phone, your audio never leaves it, and it's free with no word limit.

Your first month in Spain comes down to a lot of small messages

You've moved to Valencia for work, to Madrid for a master's, or to Málaga with your partner. Spoken Spanish comes with time, but plenty has to be written down clearly, and soon: the boiler has no hot water, a parcel was left with the portero, which day the bins go out, your daughter is staying home sick. The people on the other end are your landlord, the letting agency, the neighbours and your child's school, mostly on WhatsApp, and ideally in polite Spanish.

The usual routine: type it in English, paste it into a translation app, copy the Spanish, switch back to WhatsApp, paste, and then wonder whether it should have been tú or usted. Several app switches for one message.

With YOURIO, you just talk inside WhatsApp

1. Open the chat with your landlord, tap the message box and switch to the YOURIO keyboard.
2. Tap Translate and check that the target language is Spanish.
3. Speak English the way you normally would; the Spanish appears in the message box.
4. Read it once, check the dates, times and flat number, then send.

Some everyday situations are below. The right-hand column is an illustration; the actual wording depends on your phone's translation engine.

Habits that make the Spanish clearer and more polite

• Say who you are first. Start with your name and flat number so the landlord or agency knows which home it is.
• One message, one topic. Send the repair and the contract question separately; the translation is less likely to mix them up.
• Give the day and the time. "This Saturday at ten" is much clearer than "at the weekend".
• Check addresses, flat numbers and street names before sending. Place names and people's names that keep coming out wrong can go in your personal dictionary.
• Unsure about politeness? Use Edit. Select the Spanish, tap Edit, then AI Edit, and say "make it more polite"; Edit rewrites it in place and keeps it in Spanish. Edit is a cloud AI feature that sends only text, and signing in to YOURIO AI gives you 2,000 free words a week.

You don't need to speak in perfect sentences. With Magic on, filler words and the bits where you corrected yourself are cleaned up before translation.

Messages to a landlord are personal: where the data goes

Messages to your landlord or your child's school often contain your address, phone number or your children's names. When you talk to YOURIO, speech recognition and translation run on your phone, and the recording is never saved or sent to us. If Memory is on, only the text of what you said is kept, on the phone, with no cloud copy; switch to Private mode whenever you'd rather nothing be saved.

Text goes to the cloud AI you chose only when you use Edit, Magic · Enhanced or Ask Memory. If that matters to you, use plain translation for messages with personal details and skip Edit. The full data flow is in Does voice typing upload your voice?

What it doesn't do

• It translates what you say, not what they send back. YOURIO is a keyboard: it types your words. To read your landlord's reply in English, use another translation tool.
• It isn't an interpreter for calls or face-to-face conversations. For live conversations, use a dedicated interpreting tool or bring someone along.
• It's machine translation. For anything with legal weight, such as the rental contract, the deposit or notice periods, have someone who reads Spanish or a professional check it. Don't rely on the translation alone.
• The languages need to be downloaded. English recognition is downloaded in the Speak tab and the Spanish translation pack under Translation language packs. Set both up before you move.

Set it up before you move

1. Install YOURIO (download links are at the end of this article), download English in the Speak tab, and turn on the YOURIO keyboard in your system settings.
2. Go to Voice › Language › Translation language packs, download Spanish and tap it to set it as the target.
3. In WhatsApp, switch to the YOURIO keyboard, tap Translate and send yourself a test message.

For the languages YOURIO can type and how it cleans up each one, see Speak your language, type another. For work email in Spanish, read Speak English, type Spanish.

Frequently asked questions

Can I speak English and send a WhatsApp message in Spanish?

Yes. In the WhatsApp message box, switch to the YOURIO voice keyboard, turn on translation with Spanish as the target, and speak English: the Spanish is typed for you. Recognition and translation run on your phone, free with no word limit. Check dates and flat numbers before you send.

Can YOURIO translate my landlord's replies?

No. YOURIO is a voice keyboard: it translates what you say and types it. It doesn't translate messages you receive, so use another translation tool to read replies.

Is my personal information uploaded when I use voice translation?

Speech recognition and translation run on your phone, and the recording is never saved or uploaded. Text is sent to the cloud AI you chose only when you use Edit, Magic · Enhanced or Ask Memory, so you can use plain translation for messages with personal details.

What if the Spanish isn't polite enough?

Select the Spanish and use Edit: say "make it more polite" or "use usted", and YOURIO rewrites it in place, still in Spanish. Edit is a cloud AI feature; YOURIO AI gives you 2,000 free words a week after signing in, or you can use your own API key.